Bridging Anatomy, Histology, and Pathology: A Novel Curriculum Component Incorporating Self-directed Learning for First-Year Medical Students.

During cadaveric dissection or prosection, medical students frequently encounter pathology that can be a springboard to further learning. We designed a novel educational activity linking anatomy, histology, and pathology that incorporated self-directed learning and teamwork, followed by feedback and instruction from pathologists. Post-activity, more than 97% of students rated the activity as useful (Likert scale of 1 to 5), indicating this activity should be continued in the future. Strengths included self-directed learning, content and design, and teamwork, peer, and faculty interactions. Clarity of assignment expectations, range of pathologies, and virtual presentation format remained areas for improvement.

Predictors of COVID-19 severity: A literature review.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a rapidly evolving global emergency that continues to strain healthcare systems. Emerging research describes a plethora of patient factors-including demographic, clinical, immunologic, hematological, biochemical, and radiographic findings-that may be of utility to clinicians to predict COVID-19 severity and mortality. We present a synthesis of the current literature pertaining to factors predictive of COVID-19 clinical course and outcomes. Findings associated with increased disease severity and/or mortality include age > 55 years, multiple pre-existing comorbidities, hypoxia, specific computed tomography findings indicative of extensive lung involvement, diverse laboratory test abnormalities, and biomarkers of end-organ dysfunction. Hypothesis-driven research is critical to identify the key evidence-based prognostic factors that will inform the design of intervention studies to improve the outcomes of patients with COVID-19 and to appropriately allocate scarce resources.

Outcomes of a Longitudinal Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Preclerkship Curriculum.

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether quality improvement (QI) and patient safety (PS) training in preclerkship medical education resulted in students' development and retention of knowledge, application-based and perceived skills, and attitudes throughout clerkships. METHOD: A longitudinal QI/PS curriculum with multimodal curricular components was implemented in the preclerkship curriculum between 2015 and 2017 at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Rhode Island. Assessments were administered at baseline (T1), end of year 1 (T2), Clinical Skills Clerkship (T3), and end of clerkships (T4) in the intervention cohort (n = 97). In 2018, T4 data for this cohort were compared with a prior control cohort (n = 97) at T4. RESULTS: Results of knowledge-based multiple-choice questions (MCQs) (t[134] = -1.57, P < .001) and application-based skills (t[132] = -8.91, P < .001) demonstrated significant improvement from T1 to T2 (intervention cohort). Assessments of perceived skills showed significant growth from T1 to T2 (t[137] = -23.38, P < .001). Performance on application-based skills significantly improved from T2 to T3 (t[123] = -4.11, P < .001). Compared with the control cohort, the intervention cohort had significantly higher scores on MCQs (t[187.88] = 3.98, P < .001), application-based skills (t[72.69] = 6.40, P < .001), perceived skills (t[106.99] = 5.24, P < .001), and attitudes (t[152] = 5.86, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Incorporation of preclerkship QI/PS training resulted in improvements in knowledge, application-based and perceived skills, and attitudes that were retained throughout clerkships.

Communities of Practice in Peer Review: Outlining a Group Review Process.

Traditional peer review remains the gold standard for assessing the merit of scientific scholarship for publication. Challenges to this model include reliance on volunteer contributions of individuals with self-reported expertise; lack of sufficient mentoring and training of new reviewers; and the isolated, noncollaborative nature of individual reviewer processes.The authors participated in an Association of American Medical Colleges peer-review workshop in November 2015 and were intrigued by the process of group peer review. Subsequent discussions led to shared excitement about exploring this model further. The authors worked with the staff and editors of Academic Medicine to perform a group review of 4 submitted manuscripts, documenting their iterative process and analysis of outcomes, to define an optimal approach to performing group peer review.Individual recommendations for each manuscript changed as a result of the group review process. The group process led to more comprehensive reviews than each individual reviewer would have submitted independently. The time spent on group reviews decreased as the process became more refined. Recommendations aligned with journal editor findings. Shared operating principles were identified, as well as clear benefits of group peer review for reviewers, authors, and journal editors.The authors plan to continue to refine and codify an effective process for group peer review. They also aim to more formally evaluate the model, with inclusion of feedback from journal editors and authors, and to compare feedback from group peer reviews versus individual reviewer feedback. Finally, models for expansion of the group-peer-review process are proposed.

An Interprofessional Model for Teaching Medical Students to Provide Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral for Treatment for Substance Misuse.

BACKGROUND: Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based method to identify, reduce, and prevent the harmful use of alcohol and illicit substances. However, SBIRT remains underused by physicians and other healthcare providers. Integrating interprofessional SBIRT training in medical curricula may better prepare future providers to care for patients with substance use disorders. METHODS: The authors report the development and outcomes of a longitudinal, interprofessional SBIRT curriculum organized in partnership with health professions' schools in nursing, pharmacy, and social work. Primary results: From October 2015 to April 2017, 1,327 students were trained in SBIRT, resulting in the screening of 4,520 individuals and interventions in 897 individuals. 553 (42%) trainees were medical students, providing 3,330 (74%) screenings and 412 (46%) interventions. PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS: These initial data demonstrate the feasibility of including SBIRT in undergraduate medical curricula. Broadly implemented, SBIRT training offers potential to normalize its practice as part of standard, evidenced-based patient care.

A qualitative analysis of interprofessional students' perceptions toward patients with opioid use disorder after a patient panel experience.

Background: Students from health professional schools participated in a half-day interprofessional education workshop centered on substance use disorder training. One component was a patient panel featuring individuals with a history of opioid use disorder who described the impact of addiction on their lives and their road to recovery using varied treatment options. We hypothesized that interacting with individuals with opioid use disorder early in training would elicit more humanistic perspectives and decrease bias and stigma in future health care professionals. Methods: After participating in the panel experience, health professional students (N = 580) from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, and social work were asked to complete short, 5-minute, rapid reflections. Prompts asked students whether the panel changed their perception of individuals with substance use disorder, to reflect on their attitudinal changes or lack thereof, and how working in interprofessional teams could impact the management and treatment of these patients. Conventional content analysis was performed. Results: Eighty-nine percent of students who attended the session completed the rapid reflections (n = 514). Overall, approximately 70% (n = 369) of students indicated that their perceptions of individuals with substance use disorder had changed as a result of the patient panel, with students from pharmacy more likely to indicate a change in attitudes. Themes across all professions included a change toward a more humanistic perspective, value of hearing real patient stories, and learning about treatment and recovery options. Student responses described how interprofessional health care teams can provide more holistic care with a broader range of therapeutic options that may improve long-term outcomes. Conclusions: A patient panel experience is influential on interprofessional students' attitudes toward patients who suffer from opioid use disorder. Students identified an interprofessional approach as being a valuable component of management and treatment of these patients.

Opioid Overdose Hospitalizations among Medicare-Disability Beneficiaries.

INTRODUCTION: As the opioid epidemic progresses, a better understanding of those at elevated risk of opioid overdose is needed, particularly for populations whose growing risk may be overlooked. Medicare recipients under age 65 (Medicare-disability beneficiaries [MDBs]) are one such population. We sought to analyze characteristics of opioid-overdose hospitalizations among MDBs and quantify the contribution of this population to opioid-overdose hospitalizations overall. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included patients hospitalized for opioid overdose in the National/Nationwide Inpatient Sample from 1998 to 2013. The primary outcome measurements were number and characteristics of discharges, including patient sex, age, race, prescription opioid versus heroin overdose, and comorbidities. RESULTS: MDBs constituted 11.7% of US opioid overdose hospitalizations among those under 65 years of age in 1998; this proportion grew to 24.5% by 2013 (P < .0001). The proportion of female patients grew markedly among this cohort (P < .0001) and were disproportionately represented among MDBs (P < .0001). Prescription opioid overdose accounted for a larger proportion of opioid overdose hospitalizations among MDBs than among non-Medicare-insured patients under 65 years old (P < .0001). MDBs generally exhibited greater comorbidity burden versus non-Medicare-insured patients under age 65; however, chronic drug and alcohol abuse were less commonly documented among the Medicare cohort (P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: MDBs constitute a substantial and growing proportion of opioid overdose hospitalizations in the United. To prevent opioid overdoses among MDBs, care must be taken to address the unique needs of this population.

Contrasting Incoming Medical Students' Attitudes Dual Degree vs Traditional Tracks.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (AMS) recently implemented a novel dual degree MD-ScM program in primary care and population medicine (PC-PM) that enrolls up to 24 of its nearly 144 yearly matriculants. The overarching goal of this track is to train medical students to become physician leaders who focus on issues in population medicine within primary care. METHODS: We conducted a baseline assessment of the students enrolled in this parallel track in comparison to our traditional students to identify characteristics of and group differences between students in the PC-PM program and traditional students. Data was collected from first-year students matriculating in the 2015 and 2016 academic years (N=277) using portions of nine validated surveys with an emphasis on caring for the underserved and cultural competence, professionalism, working in interprofessional teams, tolerance of ambiguity, empathy, patient-provider interactions, and patient safety/quality improvement. RESULTS: We identified slightly higher significant baseline differences on three scales in which the PC-PM students (n=38) were higher than those in the traditional track students (n=239). These measured cultural competency (t[275]=-3.05, P=.003), professionalism (t[273]=-3.10, P=.002), and attitudes toward working with underserved populations (t[267]=2.31, P=.02). CONCLUSIONS: The higher differences for these three elements may be important to the success of the PC-PM program. We plan to track the growth of the PC-PM students as well as our traditional students through their 4 years of medical school to investigate growth and development throughout the academic career.

An Interactive Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Workshop for First-Year Medical Students.

Introduction: There is a call to incorporate quality improvement and patient safety (QI/PS) content into undergraduate medical education, though limited literature exists on optimal teaching strategies. We designed a required, interactive workshop for first-year medical students to introduce principles of QI/PS, specifically focusing on student attitudes, knowledge, and skills. Methods: We used active learning principles from existing literature and included the application of QI/PS concepts, engaging in PDSA (plan, do, study, act) cycles, conducting root cause analyses, and creating a fishbone diagram. Evaluation of student knowledge included pre/post assessments with locally designed multiple-choice items and a case scenario from the Quality Improvement Knowledge Application Tool. Additional students' self-assessments included perceived knowledge and problem-solving skills. We also evaluated student satisfaction with the workshop. Results: Results on the direct assessment total score (n = 136) indicated significant growth from pretest (65%) to posttest (89%). Indirect assessments (n = 138) targeting perceived ability to define QI/PS principles, identify key components in a QI case scenario, explain the purpose of a fishbone diagram, apply a PDSA cycle, and create a fishbone diagram for a QI case scenario all significantly increased from pre- to postworkshop. The mean overall rating across the 2 years the workshop was administered (ns = 134, 137) was 75% (i.e., good to very good). Discussion: First-year medical students' knowledge and perceived skills significantly increased from start to end of the workshop. The workshop was placed in an appropriate stage of the curriculum and contained relevant information for our learners.

Predicting United States Medical Licensure Examination Step 2 clinical knowledge scores from previous academic indicators.

The use of multiple academic indicators to identify students at risk of experiencing difficulty completing licensure requirements provides an opportunity to increase support services prior to high-stakes licensure examinations, including the United States Medical Licensure Examination (USMLE) Step 2 clinical knowledge (CK). Step 2 CK is becoming increasingly important in decision-making by residency directors because of increasing undergraduate medical enrollment and limited available residency vacancies. We created and validated a regression equation to predict students' Step 2 CK scores from previous academic indicators to identify students at risk, with sufficient time to intervene with additional support services as necessary. Data from three cohorts of students (N=218) with preclinical mean course exam score, National Board of Medical Examination subject examinations, and USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK between 2011 and 2013 were used in analyses. The authors created models capable of predicting Step 2 CK scores from academic indicators to identify at-risk students. In model 1, preclinical mean course exam score and Step 1 score accounted for 56% of the variance in Step 2 CK score. The second series of models included mean preclinical course exam score, Step 1 score, and scores on three NBME subject exams, and accounted for 67%-69% of the variance in Step 2 CK score. The authors validated the findings on the most recent cohort of graduating students (N=89) and predicted Step 2 CK score within a mean of four points (SD=8). The authors suggest using the first model as a needs assessment to gauge the level of future support required after completion of preclinical course requirements, and rescreening after three of six clerkships to identify students who might benefit from additional support before taking USMLE Step 2 CK.

Proceedings from Bridging Health Disparities to Address the Opioid Epidemic: A Symposium at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: In response to the unprecedented rates of illicit drug use, including opioid addiction and overdose in Rhode Island, local healthcare institutions, led by the Warren Alpert Medical School (AMS) of Brown University, collaborated to present "Bridging Health Disparities to Address the Opioid Epidemic." This symposium sought to educate a wide array of healthcare providers and professionals around opioid use disorder, including the state of the opioid crisis in Rhode Island, national efforts around opioid misuse and how providers can work together to stem the opioid crisis in the state. DESIGN AND METHODS: The symposium included a keynote session which aimed to increase knowledge and decrease stigma. This was followed by two rounds of breakout sessions which focused on various components of opioid disorder treatment. We elicited feedback from participants in order to plan further interventions to educate providers in Rhode Island around the opioid epidemic. Primary Results: Initial feedback was positive. More importantly, this workshop allowed us to identify gaps in knowledge amongst healthcare providers in Rhode Island in order to plan further interventions for healthcare providers, including physicians, around opioid misuse, in Rhode Island. PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS: This symposium is one of the first steps that a consortium of healthcare institutions, including AMS, will take to address the opioid crisis in Rhode Island. Feedback from the event was elicited to identify gaps in healthcare provider knowledge and will be used to design and implement further interventions. [Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-04.asp].

An interprofessional education workshop to develop health professional student opioid misuse knowledge, attitudes, and skills.

OBJECTIVE: To implement and evaluate an interprofessional workshop focused on increasing student knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward opioid misuse. SETTING: The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, April 2016. PRACTICE DESCRIPTION: Health professional students from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, and physical therapy participated in an interprofessional education workshop focused on opioid use disorder. PRACTICE INNOVATION: This workshop included 4 main components: a patient panel, a simulated standardized patient encounter, a paper-based case session focused on a homeless individual misusing opioids, and naloxone training. EVALUATION: Direct assessment included a pretest and a posttest adapted from the Opioid Overdose Knowledge Scale administered to medical students measuring knowledge of opioid overdose at baseline and at 12 weeks after the workshop. Indirect assessment included a satisfaction survey administered to medical, nursing, pharmacy, and social work students. RESULTS: Medical students scored a mean of 40.84 out of 54 (SD = 5.36) points at baseline (n = 120) and a mean of 47.94 out of 54 (SD = 3.20) points at 12-week follow-up (n = 72), demonstrating a significant increase in knowledge from pretest to posttest (P <0.001). Student satisfaction data from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, and physical therapy (n = 272) revealed a high degree of satisfaction regarding the overall quality of the training (4.47/5; SD = 0.75), quality of instruction (4.53/5; SD = 0.73), quality of training materials (4.46/5; SD = 0.77), the training experience (4.52/5; SD = 0.75), and the organization of the training (4.50/5; SD = 0.73). CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that an interprofessional education workshop focused exclusively on opioid misuse was well received with high levels of satisfaction among health professional students. Workshops such as these can be used in health professions curricula to simulate the complex issues surrounding substance use disorder and to highlight the importance of interprofessional teams.

Substance Use Disorder Training Workshop for Future Interprofessional Health Care Providers.

INTRODUCTION: Rates of substance use disorders, including opioid misuse, continue to rise despite national initiatives. Because of this, health professional schools from Rhode Island joined together to design and implement a single-day interprofessional education workshop on substance use disorder training. METHODS: This workshop consists of four sessions. The first is a patient panel featuring both patients recovering from substance use disorders and their health care providers. Next is a naloxone administration training session. This is followed by a standardized patient session featuring an individual who requires nonopioid options for chronic pain treatment and in which health professional students work together to take a history, perform a physical examination, and develop a treatment plan. Finally, the last session is a complex paper-based case study focusing on a homeless individual with diverse medical problems requiring multifaceted care. RESULTS: A total of 540 students from a variety of health care professions participated in the workshop. Students were asked to evaluate each component of the workshop, as well as the workshop overall, on a 6-point Likert scale (1 = poor, 6 = outstanding). Students rated the overall workshop at 76% (4.54 out of 6), and the sessions received ratings ranging from 67% (4.01 out of 6 for the case study) to 83% (4.96 out of 6 for the patient/provider panel). DISCUSSION: This curriculum can be adapted and implemented at other medical schools to provide opportunities for future health care professionals to learn how to work effectively in interprofessional teams to manage substance use disorders.

Expanding Group Peer Review: A Proposal for Medical Education Scholarship.

After participating in a group peer-review exercise at a workshop presented by Academic Medicine and MedEdPORTAL editors at the 2015 Association of American Medical Colleges Medical Education Meeting, the authors realized that the way their work group reviewed a manuscript was very different from the way by which they each would have reviewed the paper as an individual. Further, the group peer-review process yielded more robust feedback for the manuscript's authors than did the traditional individual peer-review process. This realization motivated the authors to reconvene and collaborate to write this Commentary to share their experience and propose the expanded use of group peer review in medical education scholarship.The authors consider the benefits of a peer-review process for reviewers, including learning how to improve their own manuscripts. They suggest that the benefits of a team review model may be similar to those of teamwork and team-based learning in medicine and medical education. They call for research to investigate this, to provide evidence to support group review, and to determine whether specific paper types would benefit most from team review (e.g., particularly complex manuscripts, those receiving widely disparate initial individual reviews). In addition, the authors propose ways in which a team-based approach to peer review could be expanded by journals and institutions. They believe that exploring the use of group peer review potentially could create a new methodology for skill development in research and scholarly writing and could enhance the quality of medical education scholarship.

Playing in the "Gutter": Cultivating Creativity in Medical Education and Practice.

In comics, "gutters" are the empty spaces between panels that readers must navigate to weave disjointed visual sequences into coherent narratives. A gutter, however, is more than a blank space--it represents a creative zone for making connections and for constructing meaning from disparate ideas, values, and experiences. Over the course of medical training, learners encounter various "gutters" created by the disconnected subject blocks and learning experiences within the curriculum, the ambiguity and uncertainty of medical practice, and the conflicts and tensions within clinical encounters. Navigating these gutters requires not only medical knowledge and skills but also creativity, defined as the ability to make connections between disparate fragments to create meaningful, new configurations. To cultivate medical students' creative capacity, the authors developed the Integrated Clinical Arts (ICA) program, a required component of the first-year curriculum at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. ICA workshops are designed to place students in a metaphorical gutter, wherein they can practice making connections between medicine and arts-based disciplines. By playing in the gutter, students have opportunities to broaden their perspectives, gain new insights into both medical practice and themselves, and explore different ways of making meaning. Student feedback on the ICA program highlights an important role for creativity and the arts in medicine: to transform gutters from potential learning barriers into opportunities for discovery, self-reflection, and personal growth.

The Primary Care-Population Medicine Program at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

The United States healthcare system has been in a period of rapid evolution over the past decade, a trend that is anticipated to continue for the foreseeable future. Physicians are increasingly responsible for the quality of care they provide, and are being held accountable not just for the patient in front of them, but also for the outcomes of their patient panels, communities, and populations. In response to these changes, as well as the projected shortage of primary care physicians, the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (AMS) developed the Primary Care-Population Medicine (PC-PM) program, which builds upon the traditional curriculum with major integrated curricular innovations. The first is a Master of Science Degree in Population Medicine that requires students to take nine additional courses over four years, complete a thesis project focused on an area of Population Medicine, and take part in significant leadership training. Another significant innovative element is the development of a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) during the 3rd year of medical school in which the students complete a longitudinal outpatient experience with the same preceptors and patients. During the LIC students will follow a panel of patients wherever care is provided, while focusing on population health and healthcare delivery issues, in addition to medical topics throughout their clinical and didactic experiences. Though several of the innovative elements are being piloted, the inaugural PC-PM class of up to 24 students will only begin in August 2015. While the outcomes from this program will not be known for many years, the potential impact of the program is significant for AMS, medical education, and the future of healthcare delivery.

Health disparity curriculum at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

There is increasing recognition that, in addition to acquiring knowledge of basic sciences and clinical skills, medical students must also gain an understanding of health disparities, and develop a defined skill set to address these inequalities. There are few descriptions in the literature of a systematic, longitudinal curriculum in health disparities. Using Kern's six-step approach to curriculum development along with principles of experiential and active learning, student champions and the Office of Medical Education developed a multimodal health disparities curriculum. This curriculum includes required experiences for medical students in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year, along with elective experiences throughout medical school. Students are examined on their knowledge, skills and attitudes towards health disparities prior to graduation. It is our hope this curriculum empowers students with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to care for patients while helping patients navigate the socioeconomic and cultural issues that may affect their health.

Future health disparity initiatives at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

As the United States embarks on health care reform through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to practice medicine will change. Education centered on health disparities and social determinants of health will become increasingly more important as 32 million Americans receive coverage through the ACA. In this paper, we describe future initiatives at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in training medical students on health disparities and social determinants of health through mechanisms such as the Primary Care-Population Medicine Program, the Rhode Island Area Health Education Center, the Scholarly Concentration program and other mechanisms.